William Shakespeare by Jennifer Bassett
单词提示
1.court 王室人员
2.grief 悲伤
原文
Chapter 6: Death in the family
After the plague years, we were busy all the time.
There were new companies of players, and Will now belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
The Lord Chamberlain was a very important man, close to the Queen.
And we often put on plays for the Queen's Court and in the houses of the Great Lords of England.
We had some very good actors.
There was Will and Richard Burbage, of course, and John Hemmings.
And there was Augustine Phillips, Henry Condell, and Thomas Pope.
There were other actors too, but those six were the real company.
They worked together for more than 20 years, and made a lot of money too.
I did the costumes and properties for the Chamberlains.
John Hemmings said I was the best properties man in the city.
Will was special, because he wrote the plays, and what plays they were.
He never wrote the same play twice like some writers, he was always trying something new, something different, and he wrote fast too.
John Hemmings could never understand that.
“How can you write so fast, Will?” he asked him, “and you never make a mistake or change a word?”
Will didn't really understand it himself.
“It's all in my head.” he said, “I think about it, and then it just comes out on paper.”
He wrote a play about love in 1595, young love.
It was Romeo and Juliet.
It was a very sad play, because the young lovers die at the end, but the playgoers loved it.
They wanted to see it again and again.
Will played the part of old Capulet, Juliet's father,
One of the boy actors, played the part of Juliet.
There were no women actors, so boys played all the women's parts.
Of course, Will never put real love making on stage.
He did it all with words, clever, beautiful words, and you forgot that the women and girls were really boys in dresses.
Some of the boy actors were very good and went on to play men's parts when they were older.
We played Romeo and Juliet at Richmond Palace that year.
We always played before the Queen at Christmas.
She liked to see the new plays and she paid us £10 a play.
We often had to work through the night to get the stage ready in time, but it was exciting to be in one of the Queen's palaces at Christmas.
There was a lot of singing and dancing and eating and drinking.
Some years, Christmas began in November and didn't finish until February or March.
The year 1596 began well, but that summer the weather was really bad, cold, wet, it never stopped raining, and the plague began to come back into London.
We were in Stratford for the summer, but I went down to Hampshire for a few weeks to do some business for Will about some sheep.
Will didn't need me at home, because he was busy writing his new play—A Midsummer Night's Dream.
I came back to Stratford one wet August evening.
The house in Henley Street was strangely quiet, and I went round the back and up to Will's room, his writing room, we call it.
He was just sitting there, not doing anything, just sitting.
“What's the matter, Will?” I said, “Where is everybody?”
“At church?”
His face was gray and his eyes looked empty, dead.
“What's happened?” I asked, “What is it?”
He looked at me.
“Hamlet,”he began, “Hamlet was ill last week and he died yesterday. He was only 11, Toby,and he's dead. My boy, my only son, He's dead, Toby, dead.”
He put his face in his hands.
What can you say to a man when something like that happens to him?
I sat down next to him and put my hand on his arm.
We sat together silently.
I knew that Will loved that boy of his red haired, bright as a new penny, full of life, just like his father.
After a while, I said, “You'll have other sons.”
“Anne's 40 already.” Will's voice was tired, “She's had no children since the twins.”
“Will, now you've got two fine girls in Susanna and Judith, they'll marry before long, and then you'll have more grandsons than you can count. You'll see there'll be boys running up and downstairs shouting for their granddad, Will.”
He smiled sadly, but his eyes were not so empty now.
“Pleased,”I went on quickly, “and there are all your brothers, Gilbert, Richard, Edmund,they'll have sons too. The Shakespeare family will never die out. Think of the family, Will, the family.”
And he did, he was already a famous poet and playwright, but he was a family man too.
The next year, 1597, he bought a new house for his family.
It was a big grand house called New Place, right in the middle of Stratford.
It cost £60, a lot of money, and the townspeople began to say Mr. Shakespeare, not young Will, the actor or John Shakespeare's boy.
They were happy to do business with him and to borrow money from him.
Anne was very pleased with the new house.
The wife of Mr. Shakespeare of New Place was an important person in Stratford, but she still didn't like Will's work.
“Actors are wild, dangerous people.” she often said to him, “I'm not interested in plays or the and I don't want to know anything about your work.”
But she liked the money, and the new house, and the new dresses, and the 6 fields of apple trees, and the big farm north of Stratford that came a few years later.
Will never talked much about Hamnet.
Life goes on and Will was busier than ever, but I know he thought about his son a lot.
His grief was very deep inside him.
A year or two later, I was talking to John Hemmings about the costumes for Will's new play——King John.
John Hemmings was a family man, he had 14 children.
In the end, the noise in his house, shouting and laughing, coming and going.
John was looking at the playbook.
“You see this bit here, Toby.” he said, “Will's writing about his son, isn't he?”
I read the words slowly, and remembered Will's empty eyes that day in August.
“Grief fills the room. Up of my absent child, lies in his bed, walks up and down with me, puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words…”
Richard Burbage said once that Will's writing changed after Hamlet's death.
“Will still laughed at people in his plays,but he also felt sorry for them, sorry for all the world, Good and bad, rich and poor, young and old. And his people were real. No one was all good or all bad. There was a man called Shylock in his play—The Merchant of Venice. This Shylock was a money lender and a cruel man. Everyone hated him. But in the end, when Shylock lost everything, you had to feel sorry for him. He was just a sad old man.”
Perhaps Richard was right, and if anyone understood Will, it was Richard Burbage.
翻译
第六章：家中的变故
瘟疫过后，我们便一直忙个不停。
伦敦涌现了许多新的剧团，而威尔此时加入了“宫内大臣剧团”。
宫内大臣是个举足轻重的大人物，深得女王信任。
我们经常在女王的宫廷里，或是英格兰各大贵族的府邸中登台演出。
我们有一批非常出色的演员。
当然，有威尔和理查德·伯比奇，还有约翰·赫明斯。
此外还有奥古斯丁·菲利普斯、亨利·康德尔和托马斯·波普。
虽然还有其他演员，但这六个人才是剧团真正的核心。
他们在一起合作了二十多年，也赚了不少钱。
我为宫内大臣剧团打理服装和道具。
约翰·赫明斯说，我是全城最棒的道具师。
威尔更是个特殊的人才，因为剧本都是他写的，而且写出的都是怎样的杰作啊！
他从不像有些作家那样千篇一律，总是不断尝试新的题材和风格，而且下笔如飞。
约翰·赫明斯怎么也想不通这是怎么做到的。
“威尔，你怎么能写得这么快？”他问，“而且从不犯错，连一个字都不改？”
其实威尔自己也说不清。
“全在我的脑子里，”他说，“我在心里构思好，然后它们就自然而然地落在纸上了。”
1595年，他写了一出关于爱情的戏，一段青涩的爱恋。
那就是《罗密欧与朱丽叶》。
这是一出极其悲伤的戏，因为年轻的爱人最终双双殉情，但观众们却爱极了它。
他们看了一遍又一遍。
威尔在戏里饰演朱丽叶的父亲老凯普莱特。
而朱丽叶则由一个少年演员反串。
那时候没有女演员，所有女性角色都由男孩来演。
当然，威尔从不在舞台上展现真实的亲热场面。
他全靠文字来表达，那些巧妙而绝美的词句，会让你完全忘记，台上的少女其实只是穿着裙子的男孩。
有些少年演员演得极好，长大后便顺理成章地开始饰演男性角色。
那年，我们在里士满宫演了《罗密欧与朱丽叶》。
我们每年圣诞节都会为女王演出。
她喜欢看新戏，每演一出就付给我们10英镑。
为了及时搭好舞台，我们经常得熬夜赶工，但在圣诞节期间能身处女王的宫殿里，那种感觉真是令人兴奋。
宫里到处是歌声、舞蹈，还有无尽的美食与美酒。
有些年份，圣诞节的庆祝活动从11月就开始了，一直要持续到次年二三月才结束。
1596年开局不错，但那年夏天天气糟透了。阴冷潮湿，雨下个不停，瘟疫也开始在伦敦卷土重来。
整个夏天我们都在斯特拉特福，但我曾去汉普郡待了几个星期，替威尔处理一些关于羊群的生意。
威尔在家里倒不需要我帮忙，因为他正忙着写他的新戏——《仲夏夜之梦》。
8月的一个雨夜，我回到了斯特拉特福。
亨利街的那栋房子安静得有些反常。我绕到屋后，走上楼来到威尔的房间——我们管那叫他的书房。
他就那么坐在那里，什么也没做，只是呆呆地坐着。
“怎么了，威尔？”我说，“大家都在哪儿？去教堂了吗？”
他的脸色灰白，眼神空洞，仿佛失去了所有生气。
“出什么事了？”我问，“到底怎么了？”
他看着我。
“哈姆内特，”他开口说，“哈姆内特上周病了，昨天走了。他才11岁啊，托比，他死了。我的儿子，我唯一的儿子，他死了，托比，死了。”
他把脸深深埋进了双手里。
当一个人遭遇这样的变故，你还能说什么呢？
我在他身边坐下，把手搭在他的手臂上。
我们就这样默默地坐着。
我知道威尔有多爱那个男孩。他红头发，朝气蓬勃，像崭新的便士一样闪闪发光，就像他父亲当年一样。
过了好一会儿，我说：“你以后还会再有儿子的。”
“安妮都已经40岁了。”威尔的声音透着深深的疲惫，“自从生了双胞胎之后，她再也没怀上过。”
“威尔，你现在有苏珊娜和朱迪思两个好女儿，她们很快就会嫁人，到时候你的孙子会多到数不过来。你会看到一群男孩在楼上楼下跑着，大声喊着要爷爷抱的，威尔。”
他苦涩地笑了笑，但眼神不再那么空洞了。
“而且，”我急忙接着说，“你还有你的弟弟们，吉尔伯特、理查德、埃德蒙，他们也会有儿子的。莎士比亚家族绝不会断绝。想想你的家族吧，威尔，想想你的家人。”
他听进去了。他那时已经是一位声名显赫的诗人兼剧作家，但他骨子里同样是个顾家的人。
第二年，也就是1597年，他为家人买下了一栋新房子。
那是位于斯特拉特福镇中心的一栋宏伟的大宅，名叫“新地”。
这栋房子花了60英镑，在当时是一笔巨款。
镇上的人们也开始尊称他为“莎士比亚先生”，而不再叫他“年轻的威尔”、“那个演员”或是“约翰·莎士比亚的儿子”了。
人们很乐意和他做生意，也愿意把钱借给他。
安妮对这栋新房子非常满意。
作为“新地”的莎士比亚太太，她在斯特拉特福成了一位重要人物，但她依然不喜欢威尔的工作。
“演员都是一群狂野、危险的人。”她经常对他说，“我对戏剧不感兴趣，也不想了解你的那些工作。”
但她喜欢钱，喜欢这栋大宅，喜欢那些漂亮的新衣服，喜欢那六片苹果树林，还有几年后买下的斯特拉特福北边的那座大农场。
威尔很少再提起哈姆内特。
生活还在继续，威尔比以往任何时候都要忙碌，但我知道，他常常在思念他的儿子。
那份悲痛，被他深深地埋在了心底。
一两年后，我和约翰·赫明斯在讨论威尔的新戏《约翰王》的服装。
约翰·赫明斯是个顾家的人，他有14个孩子。
他家里总是吵吵闹闹的，充满了孩子们的喊叫和笑声，人来人往，好不热闹。
当时约翰正在看剧本。
“托比，你看这里，”他说，“威尔是在写他的儿子，对吧？”
我慢慢地读着那些词句，想起了8月那天威尔空洞的眼神。
“悲痛填满了我失去的孩子的房间，
他仿佛躺在他的床上，与我一同踱步，
露出他可爱的模样，重复着他的话语……”
理查德·伯比奇曾说过，哈姆内特死后，威尔的写作风格变了。
“威尔依然会在戏里嘲笑世人，但他也开始悲悯他们，悲悯这世上的芸芸众生。无论善恶、贫富、老幼。他笔下的人物都是真实的。没有绝对的善，也没有绝对的恶。比如他戏里的夏洛克，那个《威尼斯商人》里的放贷人，残忍刻薄，所有人都恨他。但当夏洛克最终失去一切时，你却又忍不住要同情他。他不过是个悲哀的老人罢了。”
也许理查德说得对。如果说这世上有谁真正懂威尔，那一定是理查德·伯比奇。
